Jennifer Herr
Director of Creative & Content
IGK Hair
Irvine, CA USA
“There is some degree of tenacity involved in [overcoming personal obstacles]. I think that is something innate within me. I’ve learned to just handle things on my own.”
Milestones
My road in life took a while to figure out.
My favorite class in high school was AP Art History. My parents weren’t really involved in my schooling, so I didn't have a lot of guidance when it came to applying for college.
Attended CSULB as an art history major, but dropped out and decided to go back to community college to take different types of classes and figure out what I wanted to do.
Changed my major a few times—I decided to go to school for illustration, but after falling in love with typography classes, I decided to pursue graphic design.
Graduated from the Art Institute of California-Orange County in 2008—the financial crisis made finding full-time work difficult.
I managed to get work through a creative temp agency and worked at 15-20 companies over the course of a year—this gave me the opportunity to see different industries and office styles.
Landed a full-time graphic design job at Too Faced Cosmetics, which I had freelanced for through the placement agency.
Worked my way up in the company to become the creative director managing a team of 30 employees.
I’m now working as the director of creative and content for the small beauty industry startup, IGK Hair.
Keep following my journey
Education
High School
Career
Director of Creative & Content
I oversee all creative touch points for a startup beauty brand.
Career Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Design
Art
Being Creative
Day to Day
There are three main buckets that my days consist of: pre-production, production, and shoot days. In pre-production, I am planning for a shoot, locking in all of the vendors, approving contracts, negotiating model rates, and building vision boards. On shoot days, I am on set all day managing. Post-production involves selecting assets, approving them, and sending them out to the team. I also manage about 30 employees and have to approve their work which involves phone calls, emails, and meetings.
Advice for Getting Started
Here's the first step for college students
Learn design software (Adobe Creative Suite, etc.). If you don't want to go to school for that, then you can use Lynda.com, YouTube, etc. to teach yourself. Build strong relationships. In a creative career, having those people who are willing to meet you half way or talk through things is very important. There is a huge burden on designers to have a really wide skill set now ("full stack designers"), so I would recommend learning as much as you can. Digital, print, coding, etc.
Recommended Education
My career is related to what I studied. I'd recommend the path I took:
Hurdles
The Noise I Shed
From Myself:
"I don't have any support. I'm not going to be successful."
Challenges I Overcame
School Stress
Financial
Changed Major
